Online: Follow along with our live blog at BuffZone.com, which will curate content from from both CU and CSU reporters throughout the game. Or follow our beat writers on Twitter: @KyleRingo and @BrianHowell.

The coaches: Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre is 4-8 entering his second season in Boulder and is 20-29 in his fifth year as a head coach. CSU coach Jim McElwain is 12-14 entering his third season as a head coach, all in Fort Collins.

Rankings: Neither team is ranked.

The series: CU leads 62-21-2, including an 8-5 advantage in games played in Denver. The Buffs have won three of the past four years.

Numbers game: In the 77 seasons in which CU won its season opener, the Buffs went on to a winning season 60 times (78 percent). In the 42 years in which the Buffs lost their season opener, they went on to have a winning season 19 times (45 percent).

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Key matchup: CU's running game must find success against the CSU defense to take some pressure of quarterback Sefo Liufau. The Buffs ran for just 113 yards (3.2 per carry) in last season's game. CSU ranked 30th in the nation against the run last season, allowing 141 yards a game.

Difference maker: Colorado State tight end Kivon Cartwright will be playing on Sundays a year from now. He'll be a challenge for CU linebackers and safeties. He has never made more than four catches in a game, but he has scored nine career touchdowns. "He is very, very athletic," MacIntyre said.

Sophomore quarterback Sefo Liufau will make his first start against Colorado State on Friday. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

Season openers are always big games.

Playing a rival is always significant.

Facing a rival in the season opener is even more intense and it's unique in college football.

And this year, the Rocky Mountain Showdown against Colorado State (7:05 p.m. Fox Sports 1) looms larger for the Colorado Buffaloes than most editions from at least the past decade.

Right now before the first kickoff of the year, it's possible to see a scenario in which the Buffs could reach the postseason for the first time since 2007. With two more winnable nonconference games and Pac-12 games against Cal, Oregon State, Arizona and Utah, six wins is a possibility.

It might be like standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon on a foggy morning with just enough visibility to see the other side, but at least the Buffs and their fans can picture it.

Losing to the Rams in the season opener at Sports Authority Field in Denver would bring in the heavy clouds, making it almost impossible to picture the Buffs getting to the postseason. A loss to CSU would mean coach Mike MacIntyre's team would have to win at least four Pac-12 Conference games this season when the program has won only four in the three previous seasons combined.

Did we mention the Pac-12 might just be the best conference in the nation in 2014? Not an easy, or likely, scenario for a team as young and unfamiliar with winning as these Buffs.

None of this was lost on CSU coach Jim McElwain this week. He played up the Rams' underdog role while ramping up the pressure on the Buffs.

"For them, it's a must-win game," he said.

MacIntyre chuckled at the comment, knowing too well that McElwain is right. When you're a coach at a Power Five conference program facing a team from a smaller conference (also unique in terms of rivalries), it's always a must-win game.

"Jim is really smart," MacIntyre said. "I think it'll be a heck of a football game for both of us. I know our kids are excited about playing. CSU is really good. They're a good football team."

CU has won three of the past four and holds a 41-game advantage in the history of the series.

Both teams have their question marks entering the season.

Colorado State has a fifth-year senior at quarterback in Garrett Grayson, who has faced the Buffs twice before, going 1-1. Grayson led the Rams to a bowl win over Washington State to end last season on a high note and had the CSU passing offense ranked 30th in the country.

But the Rams enter the opener with four new starters on the offensive line charged with blocking for Grayson and CSU running backs. Senior left tackle Ty Sambrailo has accounted for all 31 career starts by this offensive line. These Rams will have to prove they're truly capable of picking up right where they left off.

Grayson left no doubt this week he is not concerned about his offensive line holding up.

"When they did make mistakes, they corrected it right then and there," Grayson said of the Rams' preseason work. "We went in and watched film a couple of times together, and you could tell that if they had a brain fart on the field, not having their eyes inside and looking outside, it's just young mistakes. They're going to make young mistakes like I did, but the confidence that I have in them has shown throughout this week."

The Rams led by one point going into the fourth quarter last season and have spent a year feeling like they beat themselves more than the Buffs did.

CU sophomore starting quarterback Sefo Liufau watched the CSU game from the sidelines last year before eventually becoming the starter midway through the season. He won't have wide receiver Paul Richardson, who burned the Rams for two long scores and more than 200 yards receiving a year ago, but he does have a deeper group of talent and experience around him than former Buff Connor Wood did to open the 2013 season.

Both Grayson and Liufau attended the Manning Passing Academy this summer and got to know one another a little bit. Friday they meet on the field Peyton Manning calls home.

Areas of concern for the Buffs are finding a big play man to replace Richardson, a crop of young defensive ends who are sure to be challenged by CSU's offense and whether the 2014 Buffs can run the ball more effectively than the 2013 version, which ranked 108th in the nation at 121 yards a game.

"I feel good about our running game," MacIntyre said. "I really do. I think we have four running backs who can run the football and are Division-I college football players. So, it'll be exciting to see what they do.

"I feel better about the athletic ability of our offensive line this year than I did at this time last year. So, I feel good about that."

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